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Your New Power to Change Companies

It may be good for consumers, but is it good for business?

The Supreme Court has given corporations more power, declaring them people-like in the Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission case. But in at least one other way, we individuals have recently gotten more power over corporations.

At sites such as Change.org, visitors can click into and "sign" a host of online petitions on a wide range of issues. Contrary to popular assumptions, many petitions have actually proved very influential on their own, or as part of larger campaigns. Let's review a few recent victories.

Real resultsA factory fire in Bangladesh that killed 27 workers led to petitions asking Abercrombie & Fitch(NYSE: ANF), Gap(NYSE: GPS), Target(NYSE: TGT), and others to improve their safety standards. A Target spokesperson said, "I want to understand what we have to do to get our brand off the Change.org petition … Tell me what we need to do, and we will try to do it." Eventually, all three companies met the demands of 65,000 petitioners.

Mega-florist 1-800-Flowers.com(Nasdaq: FLWS) agreed to offer Fair Trade flowers -- by this Mother's Day, no less -- after more than 50,000 people signed a petition. Meanwhile, petitioners protesting Chesapeake Energy's(NYSE: CHK) plans to drill for natural gas near Arlington, Texas, got the City Council to delay granting permission.

Animal-rights supporters protested when BP(NYSE: BP) was burning sea turtles alive in "burn zones," and after meeting with various organizations, BP agreed to take steps to protect the creatures. Petitions and activists asked Apple(Nasdaq: AAPL) to remove an anti-gay and anti-choice application from its iTunes store. The company did, agreeing that it didn't belong there.

Good and badWhen you're looking for terrific investments, it's worthwhile to see whether consumers are petitioning companies of interest to take certain actions. While some of the changes they demand might be great for society, they might also hurt the company's bottom line -- say, by limiting natural gas drilling, or requiring additional expense to protect against environmental impact. But changes can also boost profits they improve a company's reputation among consumers.

Author

Selena Maranjian has been writing for the Fool since 1996 and covers basic investing and personal finance topics. She also prepares the Fool's syndicated newspaper column and has written or co-written a number of Fool books. For more financial and non-financial fare (as well as silly things), follow her on Twitter... Follow @SelenaMaranjian